Author: Regency
Title: Tumbleweed
Fandom: Wild Child
Pairing: Kate/Poppy, along with friendship all around.
Rating: PG
Word count: 2,354
Summary: At the end of their time at Abbey Mount, Mrs.
Kingsley isn’t there anymore and now the girls only have pictures. When the pictures fail, they have each other.
AN: Because I know UK schools sometimes have a 13th
year, I sort of guessed at the graduation year. ETA: I know I fudged up the English education system. Hopefully,
you can enjoy the story regardless.
AN II: Part of this was also written as a tribute to the
late great Natasha Richardson who also acted in this movie.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in the movie.
They’re the property of their respective writers, producers, and studios.
~!~
Who are we? Poppy asked herself as she stared at the class pictures on the
wall.
“Abbey Mount girls,” Mrs. Kingsley would have said had she been standing right beside her. Her arm around
Poppy’s shoulder would have been light and embracing, but never smothering. “I am not your mother,” she
had declared once to the student body, “but I will love each and every one of you as though you were my daughters.”
In time, the feeling would be reciprocated by almost every girl to pass through the school’s doors. Perhaps, most of all, Poppy felt it.
2009, read the portrait. There
she was, amid the crowd, in their uniform colors with their demure smiles and their bright, bright futures. There she was beside the empty place that should have held their headmistress. That day had been perfect in every way but one.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said another voice she was used to.
They were sniffling and taking big breaths not to cry. Kate never cried and Poppy didn’t like how much worse
the sound made her feel.
“No,” she confirmed, stifling the urge to tell them off because this was her spot to grieve. She had surrendered
what was hers to what was theirs without noticing two years ago.
“I don’t think I even liked her until last year,” remarked Dippy.
“I didn’t notice her until I was in trouble. She gave me chance
after chance. I threw them all in her face,” Poppy blustered, feeling the blood rush to her face.
“And, then, you learned, Poppy. Please, don’t do this to yourself.
Don’t remember her this way,” Kate begged, reaching out to take her hand.
Instead of making her feel better, Kate’s touch made her feel worse and she began to weep.
Her roommates closed in around her and for just a few minutes, the rest of the world disappeared. All that was left
was the shoulder on which she laid her head, the arms around her waist, and the many hands that seem to have found a way to
hold onto her. She was so thankful for them because she felt like they were all
that kept her from drifting away.
Before too long, the moment passed and reality intruded again. Her father was coming—true steps and all—to
the rescue.
“Poppy,” he whispered and she realized that they were alone save for the portraits on the wall. She touched her fingers over her mother’s face, her own face reflected. 1976.
“She reminded me of mom sometimes. I don’t even know why. They
didn’t smell the same or laugh the same. She was just there one day, like
mom was, and then she wasn’t—like mom wasn’t.” Poppy thought if she was as small as she used to be,
he would have swept her up in his arms and bought her something beautiful to soothe the hurt.
But she wasn’t small now.
“I know, honey.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head and wrapped his arms around her. Nothing was the same as when she was eleven; then again, nothing was the same as when she was sixteen. There weren’t enough beautiful things in the world today to stem the hurt.
“I made it through,” she announced unnecessarily to the unmanned station beside her graduating class. “I didn’t give up on me. Thank you for not giving up on me, Mrs. Kingsley.”
Her father squeezed her just so and she smiled, signaling that he was free to step away. This was back to being their time.
Despite the memorial portrait in the front hall, Poppy thought it easier to grieve where she wasn’t than where
she was. She wondered why it didn’t feel better.
“I guess this is goodbye.” She did what felt cliché and touched
a kiss to the glass. It had been pristine; it was all streaked in Poppy now. “Who are we?” she asked again and
walked away with the answer sounding her head.
~!~
She wandered back to the dormitory where all her things were already packed and waiting to be shipped to back to the
States. The next school year was coming fast and the summer was wasting; California
felt like a pipe dream from here. University, or college, as she encouraged them to call it, was coming.
“It’s really over.” Kiki sat dumbfounded next to Josie with a lonely book in her lap. All her things were packed, too. Four years of her life in just a few pieces of luggage. It was almost
insulting in an existential type of way.
“Yup,” Poppy supplied, jumping onto her now-unmarked bed. Two years at this school had changed her life;
she couldn’t imagine what four might have done.
Kate, with her knees drawn up to her chest in the window seat, asked them, “You all promise to visit me at Cambridge?” She had asked a number of times before and had gotten their reassurances each time. Poppy thought that maybe Kate had never forgiven her for the lie she never told. Either
way, she’d promised to visit at least once during school time and for a week during winter hols—holidays, she corrected herself. The language was hard to resist when she was surrounded by it.
“It’ll be brilliant…” Poppy sighed, rolling her eyes. “It’ll be cool. Don’t
worry. We’ll still hang out together.” She left her bed to shove Kate over in the tight space. “That’s how this works. Abbey Mount is forever.
We are forever.” She put out her hand. “Okay?”
Kate frowned, and Poppy wilted just a tiny bit. After how quickly Ruby had discarded her, she couldn’t deny her
fear of being left behind on two continents. Kate smiled and Poppy straightened
as the blonde grabbed her hand. “Okay.”
“Good.” She kept holding on. “Who’s with us? Is Abbey Mount forever or are we just wasting
our time over here?” Josie, Kiki, and Drippy shared a look before launching
themselves at the pair and nearly out the window. “Too much enthusiasm, guys. Dangerous levels,” she declared,
wondering why the hell they’d left this thing open for a change.
It was a near miss but they all landed in a pile on the floor, safe and sound.
They giggled uncontrollably like they were at the Social two years before and decked out beyond recognition. It didn’t
feel over.
“Abbey Mount is forever,” Josie professed, forehead pressed to Kiki’s neck.
“Abbey Mount girls, now and forever,” Drippy sniffed. “Promise to visit me at American University.”
“In Rome, Drippy,” Kate complained. “I don’t know
how you ever got your parents to let you go.”
“Scholarships. They’re not paying for it, so I can go anywhere I like.”
“Why Rome,” Poppy inquired, not for a moment thinking to lift her head from Kate’s stomach. Her warmth was comforting and everything seemed a bit more still. The world was outside
and Kate’s fingers were playing with her hair. She had few complaints.
“That’s where all the boys are pretty, of course!”
“A fine reason to study so far from home,” Kate scoffed. “I’d
rather stay closer for the same reason.”
“Me, too,” Poppy assented, yawning. She closed her eyes to rest them. The trip through the countryside
was going to be long and unbearable; might as well have good memories to match it.
“Poppy, you’re from America. You’re already far from home.”
“Mm, didn’t I tell you guys?” Hearing nothing, she cracked one eye to see them shaking their heads
in earnest. “I got into King’s College London.” She could read
the excitement building as they looked back and forth to one another. “I start next term,” she slipped. There
was no possible protection against the screams of glee they let out as they tackle-hugged her again.
“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything,” Kate harangued her with mock accusation.
Drippy had similar thoughts of someone else. “I can’t believe you
didn’t say anything, Kiki. It’s not like you don’t snoop.”
Kiki was indignant. “I snoop, but I can also keep a secret.”
Josie simply said, “No, Kiki.”
Poppy hugged tight to Drippy who’d ended up draped across her lap in the prior struggle. “I didn’t
want to leave everyone. I mean, I know my dad’s in America and my mother’s family is there, but my family is here. This is where I became the person I want to be. England is where my mom became my mom. I don’t
belong anywhere else.” She hadn’t quite gotten up the courage to explain all that to her father; she was hoping
he would see how much happier she was and not protest. She wasn’t really
counting on it.
“Then, as a representative of England,” Kiki began, “I’d like to be the first to say, ‘Welcome
home, Poppy.’” The others echoed the sentiment and Kate sealed it with a quick kiss on her cheek. I did not stop breathing, Poppy told herself and was even somewhat
convincing.
“Aw, you guys. You’re making it even harder to leave.” The
time was ticking off on her watch. She didn’t fancy—like, care for, whatever—the sense of impending separation.
“Perfect. That means you’ll definitely be back. Brilliant plan, Kate,” Drippy finished with a playful
wink. There wasn’t much to be said for Drippy’s subtlety. Kate smiled tightly, seeming otherwise unmoved. Poppy’s
reaction could be defined in all the things she didn’t do—like turn red, or choke on spit, or die. There was a
gift in there somewhere.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your lives.” She grabbed as many people
as she could touch. “Get used to it.” They fell into one more inevitable hug as the door to the rest of the universe
opened and Josie’s parents peeked inside. Poppy held on tighter and was squished in return.
“You’re running behind,” she heard someone whisper, “I’m already used to you.”
She laughed because tears didn’t seem right. It would only be a little
while, just a short stretch in a lifetime.
Josie was the first to break away, gathering her things with her lip between her teeth and her hair in her eyes. She hoarsely whispered goodbye and led her family away.
Kiki left when her mobile rang, dragging her trunk behind her and crying loudly enough to be heard until she descended
to the ground floor.
Drippy all but danced away. It was Swan Lake on a cold floor. She did it well and they sighed. She kissed them each on the
face before she said goodbye with one more, soft-blown kiss from the door. Her mother stood outside the door, looking wistful.
That left Poppy and Kate—last and first—all alone. Now, Poppy
was the pillow that Kate clutched in her arms. “It doesn’t feel over,”
Kate told her.
“It’ll never be over,” she tried, thinking of her mother and how soothing she’d been once.
She combed her fingers through Kate’s hair. “Just think of it as being temporarily suspended. Even if this place burned to the ground—no pun intended,” she winced, “—it would
never be over.”
“We’d never be over,” Kate offered. Poppy paused her amateur styling session and considered what
things would be like if they were. She didn’t expect to feel like she’d
been kicked in the stomach.
With a shaky exhale, she nodded. “Exactly.”
“So, if I told you I liked you, really liked you, you wouldn’t be done with me?” This girl didn’t sound like the Kate she’d come to know. Her Kate was wise and confident. That’s
what made her the Kate she adored.
“Never in a million years. Promise.” She heard her take a
deep breath and watched her sit up from where she’d lain. Nothing was still anymore.
“I really like you, Poppy,” she started, licking her lips and
picking lint from her leggings. “I always have.”
“You didn’t say anything—ever.” Poppy thought she must have been an embarrassing picture of
disbelief. Self-involved she might have been, but never to this degree.
“Well, you clearly liked Freddie Kingsley. It didn’t make a lot sense to think I’d get anywhere with
you, given that.”
Poppy rubbed her hands together for lack of soft, blonde hair to run them through.
“Okay, I guess I understand that. I just—I haven’t liked him since the whole ‘burning down
part of the school’ deal and, really, he hasn’t liked me either. We’re just…friends,” she shrugged.
He was as sweet as anything, but her feelings had changed. They had a new destination now.
“Oh,” Kate replied, suddenly out of words.
“Kate?”
“Yeah.”
“I really like you, too. I have since….” She struggled
to pinpoint an event or a moment when things between them had changed. She failed. “Always.”
Kate smiled again, her confidence visibly growing. “So, if I wanted
to—to kiss you, or whatever, you wouldn’t mind?”
Poppy felt her shaky smile grow wider. “No, I wouldn’t mind.”
“Great,” Kate said and leaned over to do just that. It was
like Freddie’s kiss, but Poppy felt this one down to her toes. Kate’s lips were warm as the day they won the lacrosse
championship game for Abbey Mount; they were warm like fire without the lighter attached; they were as warm as the California
she didn’t want to go back to. Like everything out of England.
Poppy pulled away first and rested her forehead against Kate’s. Their hair fell in together, brown and gold,
equally, if differently, soft. They didn’t talk as their world shrunk right down to the duo they made.
Kate wrapped Poppy’s fingers in hers. Poppy squeezed tight. She
didn’t want to forget where she was or the warmth, or the empty spaces. She
wanted this place to forever be their place. Even if forever only lasted for
a few minutes more.
When the door finally swung open, she didn’t think to ask who they were again. She knew. Kate knew. Mrs. Kingsley
had known. Wherever their
travels took them, they would always know.
Abbey Mount was forever and that truth would never die.
